Hey, something different!

I know lately I don't have much to talk about other than walking and weight loss.  It's winter... there's really not much else going on, to be honest.  I haven't gotten even close to my sewing machine (although Easter creeping up makes me want to sew), and I honestly don't think I've made one bit of progress on anything crochet since I last mentioned it.  So really, that's about all that's going on.

But, luckily for all of us, today I have something else to talk about!

A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend that I play Pokeno with (not that I play hardly ever, but still...).  Rhonda has a 10 year old step-daughter and said she'd like to get all the girls together for a play date.  She wants to get to know my kids better so she can babysit for me sometime.  I was seriously touched...  I haven't had anyone watch my kids other than my sister in years.  

We finally picked a weekend and she arranged it all.  Boy, can she arrange a play date!  It was all about Pizza, Puppies, and Ponies!

After eating pizza for lunch, we headed over to one of her friends' farm.  She takes in a lot of rescue animals.  They had rescued a chihuahua from a man living in his car doing drugs and he ended up getting busy with one of her dogs and, well, you know how it goes.  She had 5 two-week-old puppies.  My kids loooooove little dogs.  Isabelle and Zoe are terrified of anything bigger than can fit in their lap, though.  They were nervous around the chihuahua... he was a full-sized one, not one of those little tiny ones.  



My sister came along to check out the puppies.  My parents recently had to put down their 14 year old dog, and haven't decided yet if they want another dog.... but just in case, Rhonda thought we could check out the puppies and see if we thought my parents might like one.  Honestly, I don't think my parents are up for a puppy, but they certainly were sweet little things.



Heck, I wanted this one and I don't even want a dog.  Look at that face!



The puppies were definitely a hit.  =)

Then we headed off to see the horses!  They also take in a lot of rescue horses.  I have to admit, I'm not much of an animal person, but I would never in a million years hurt an animal and can't understand why some people do.  And horses are just so beautiful and gentle creatures....



They fed some of the horses treats before we headed off to the ones that were more used to being around kids. 



Of course, Isabelle was terrified.  I literally had to carry her into the barn.  They found her some toys to play with in the tack room, but we did eventually get her outside to see the horses.



This is Rolex.  I liked Rolex.  He was the least friendliest horse and would usually walk off if we got too close, but my sister and I both managed to make friends with him before the end of the day.  He'd been abused, so you just had to be really quiet and slow around him.  He stayed away from the kids altogether.  Can't blame him, they are never slow or quiet.



Jewel was very friendly.  She had the most noticeable winter coat, too, so she looked like a big teddy bear.  Olivia liked the horses... from the ground.  



Not so much from the saddle.  



Zoe absolutely loved riding, though.  Of course.... she's my fearless child.  You'd think Isabelle would be the fearless one, not little Dodo, but that child is not afraid to try anything.



We managed to get Isabelle on a horse, but only if the horse didn't move.

After all of that, the girls got to ride around in the golf cart and they built a fire to make s'mores.



Can't go wrong with s'mores!

It was just so much fun!  Everyone was so nice and the girls were completely worn out.  Me, too.  =)

Numbers

Twenty-five.

That's the number of pounds I've lost!  I am so excited about that.  It's actually 50 lbs from my absolute highest.  8 lbs towards my 50 lb goal for the year.

Twelve.

That's the number of miles I walked Sunday (consecutively... it was more than that for the whole day, obviously).  And I realized that this entire experience is just as much mental conditioning as physical conditioning.  My body will walk until I collapse, it won't stop until my brain tells it to stop.  Those last 2 miles Sunday were brutal - not so much physically, but mentally. 

The half-marathon is in less than 3 weeks!  I have an 8 mile walk this coming weekend, a 6 miler the next, and then it's the big day!  I cannot wait to get that medal in my hands.  =)  It's 4 inches...  not as big as the huge 8 inch marathon medal, but still!  The Little Rock Marathon is known for its medals.

Four.

That's the number of days next week that Mr. Bill is going to be out of town.  This is a dilemma of epic proportions.  He's the one who get the girls up and ready for school, and takes them to school.  I have to be at work at 5:30am.  They have to be at school at 7:30am and 8:30am.  How on earth am I going to make this work?  It wouldn't be so bad, except we're short-handed at work and if I'm not there, the other girl is all by herself.  The only thing I can think of at the moment is getting the girls up and taking them to work with me, and then taking them to school, but that's going to seriously screw up their sleep.  The other girl at work closes, so I can't really ask her to come in and open, too.  I just don't know what to do.  I'll figure it out... that's what I do...

Around and around and around...

If you haven't figured it out yet, if I'm not blogging, it usually means I'm keeping on track with my workouts.  If I have time to blog, I didn't work out.  =)  Today is a rest day, since I walked 10 miles yesterday. 



I was feeling a little pressed for time, so instead of my normal trails, I opted for the high school track because it was much closer.  I haven't walked long distance on the track.... you can do the math.  1/4 mile track.  10 miles.  That's 40 laps.  Well, actually, it was 38 because I kept switching lanes and the outer lanes are obviously longer.  It was daunting, to say the least.  I thought it would be so boring that I wouldn't be able to finish, but it wasn't bad at all.  Yeah, no change in scenery, but my pace was faster and I didn't have to carry my water bottle and hoodie when I got hot.



Next weekend is a 12 mile walk.  The half-marathon is in less than a month!  March 3rd.  A while back, I took the next day off of work, thinking I'd be just a sore mess after the marathon, but I don't get sore anymore.  I may still take the day off anyway, just as a reward =)

I've lost a total of 23 lbs so far.  6 for this year's goal of 50.  Eating mostly Paleo.  The weekends tend to get me.... it requires so much prep and cooking and when I have a busy weekend, things go off track.  But I feel like my body is changing a lot lately.  I plan on taking measurements tomorrow, maybe pictures (sorry, not gonna share... not ready for THAT).

And, in other news...

I'm working on an afghan for Isabelle.  My original plan was really elaborate.  Sock monkey theme with Tunisian crochet color work.  I got into it and realized pretty quickly that I was going to HATE working on it.  It was just too much.  So, since this is for Isabelle and she loves granny squares, I'm making a giant granny square afghan in sock money colors.  She's loving it so far.  I'm going to make the square until it's wide enough and then add stripes to the top and bottom until it's long enough. 



I had planned on adding 30 roses to my Rose Field throw in January and I think I managed 6.  Crocheting and blogging both suffer when I am working out regularly!